When I was in middle school, if you didn’t have a pair of $200 tall metallic UGG boots or a Juicy Couture bag to carry around at recess, you probably weren’t as posh as the rest of your squad. If you weren’t flaunting around your knock-off Dolce and Gabbana bag, reassuring everyone it was “real” (yeah right), you might have been judged a little harsher than the rest of us. It was like that back then, and it’s the same way now. How you represent yourself, according to others, all starts with the clothes you wear and the bags you carry.
Growing up in a predominantly Caucasian suburban area, the one constant that has always remained in the hearts and minds of teenagers and their mothers is brand. The brands we wear on our backs define who we are. The shoes that we wear on the first day of school set the record straight on what our socioeconomic status is. It used to be about how many color Juicy Couture sweat suits you could wear in a week, but now its become about how many different expensive brands you can throw together for an outfit each day. What we have matters to ourselves, but more noticeably, what we don’t have matters to everybody else.
From athletes sporting Nike and Lululemon to moms in the grocery store lugging around their Louis Vuitton bags, we are unaware of just how controlled by brands we are. Do we wear them because they make us feel good, or do we wear them because they make others see us in a better light? You can get a gorgeous brown wallet for $40 at Macy's, but instead, you choose to buy a similar one for $150 at Michael Kors. Is it because the MK wallet is better looking? Can it hold more cash? Maybe, but although those are reasonable possibilities, it’s unlikely that they’re true. We want people to know we can afford these expensive brands, even if the reality is that we can’t.
Looking back, I feel like an idiot for wanting to fit into the brand culture so badly. I made my parents spend hundreds of dollars just so I could feel better about myself and make a few more friends. I’m still interested in popular brands, but not because of what they mean to others but more so for quality and style. Having an expensive taste is extremely different from having an expensive attitude. If you really like the quality of that $30 Kylie Lip Kit then that’s your prerogative, but don’t drop hundreds of dollars just to impress others. The only person you should be trying to impress is the one in the mirror, and no one needs to approve of your style besides you.
